[Jean L. Kreiling]

I found much of this engaging--fun and dark at the same time.

Like Petra, though, I found the introduction of the "cash" theme a bit incongruous. And I was disappointed that the envoi reinforced that theme instead of the frustrations that took up most of the rest of the poem.

Catherine, I thought of Millay, too, but a different, more serious poem: "For this your mother sweated in the cold, / For this you bled . . ." ("To Jesus"). The tone of the Bovary ballade is of course neither as serious as that one nor as flippant as "Grown Up." In fact, I'm still trying to decide which tone wins here--the bitter or the playful.

I do love "an easy fish in rapture's net."

Best,
Jean